We all know what anxiety feels like. The meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either the absence or presence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, and uneasiness. Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help a person to deal with a difficult situation by prompting one to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder. Because each person has a unique chemical make up, the type, number, intensity, and frequency of anxiety symptoms will vary from person to person. For example, one person may have just one mild anxiety symptom, whereas another may have all anxiety symptoms and to great severity. All combinations are common. As for another example of the anxiety that is liver anxious before abig presentation or test weight, worry and fretover familyproblems or feel uneasy at the prospect of asking the boss for a raise.However, if worries and fears are preventing you from living your life the way you'd like to, you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder. The good news is, there are many anxiety treatments and self-help strategies that can help you reduce your anxiety symptoms and take back control of your life.
Understanding anxiety disorders
It’s normal to worry and feel tense or scared when under pressure or facing a stressful situation. A 2011 review of the literature, fear and anxiety were differentiated by four domains: motivated direction, temporal focus, specificity of threat, and duration of emotional experience. According to these scientists, fear is defined as facilitating escape from threat, present-focused, geared towards a specific threat, and short-lived. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined as protecting an animal while approaching a potential threat, is future-focused, broadly focused on a diffuse threat, and long-acting.
Although it may be unpleasant, anxiety isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, anxiety can help us stay alert and focused, spur us to action, and motivate us to solve problems. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities—that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders.
Signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders
Because the anxiety disorders are a group of related conditions rather than a single disorder, they can look very different from person to person. One individual may suffer from intense anxiety attacks that strike without warning, while another gets panicky at the thought of mingling at a party. But despite their different forms, all anxiety disorders share one major symptom: persistent or severe fear or worry in situations where most people wouldn’t feel threatened.
· Physical symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety is more than just a feeling. As a product of the body’s fight-or-flight response, anxiety involves a wide range of physical symptoms. Because of the numerous physical symptoms, anxiety sufferers often mistake their disorder for a medical illness. They may visit many doctors and make numerous trips to the hospital before their anxiety disorder is discovered.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety include:
§ Pounding heart
§ Sweating
§ Stomach upset or dizziness
§ Frequent urination or diarrhea
§ Shortness of breath
§ Tremors and twitches
§ Muscle tension
§ Headaches
§ Fatigue
§ Insomnia
· Emotional symptoms of anxiety
In addition to the primary symptoms of irrational and excessive fear and worry, other common emotional symptoms of anxiety include:
§ Feelings of apprehension or dread
§ Trouble concentrating
§ Feeling tense and jumpy
§ Anticipating the worst
§ Irritability
§ Restlessness
§ Watching for signs of danger
§ Feeling like your mind’s gone blank
· Emotional effects may include "feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness, watching (and waiting) for signs (and occurrences) of danger, and, feeling like your mind's gone blank" as well as "nightmares/bad dreams, obsessions about sensations, deja vu , a trapped in your mind feeling, and feeling like everything is scary."
· Behavioral effects may include withdrawal from situations where unpleasant effects of anxiety have been experienced in the past. It can also be affected in ways which include changes in sleeping patterns, nail biting and increased motor tension, such as foot tapping.
Medication for anxiety disorders
A variety of medications, including benzodiazepines and antidepressants, are used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. But medication is most effective when combined with behavioral therapy. When compared to those who use medication alone, anxiety sufferers treated with both therapy and medication benefit from a greater reduction in symptoms and a lower risk of relapse.
For certain types of anxiety disorders like phobias or social anxiety disorder, medication may only be needed from time to time, such as right before boarding an airplane or performing at a recital.
For other anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, medication may be necessary for a longer period of treatment.
Medication may also be used in the short-term to relieve severe anxiety symptoms so that other forms of therapy can be pursued.
Understanding anxiety disorders
It’s normal to worry and feel tense or scared when under pressure or facing a stressful situation. A 2011 review of the literature, fear and anxiety were differentiated by four domains: motivated direction, temporal focus, specificity of threat, and duration of emotional experience. According to these scientists, fear is defined as facilitating escape from threat, present-focused, geared towards a specific threat, and short-lived. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined as protecting an animal while approaching a potential threat, is future-focused, broadly focused on a diffuse threat, and long-acting.
Although it may be unpleasant, anxiety isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, anxiety can help us stay alert and focused, spur us to action, and motivate us to solve problems. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities—that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders.
Signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders
Because the anxiety disorders are a group of related conditions rather than a single disorder, they can look very different from person to person. One individual may suffer from intense anxiety attacks that strike without warning, while another gets panicky at the thought of mingling at a party. But despite their different forms, all anxiety disorders share one major symptom: persistent or severe fear or worry in situations where most people wouldn’t feel threatened.
· Physical symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety is more than just a feeling. As a product of the body’s fight-or-flight response, anxiety involves a wide range of physical symptoms. Because of the numerous physical symptoms, anxiety sufferers often mistake their disorder for a medical illness. They may visit many doctors and make numerous trips to the hospital before their anxiety disorder is discovered.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety include:
§ Pounding heart
§ Sweating
§ Stomach upset or dizziness
§ Frequent urination or diarrhea
§ Shortness of breath
§ Tremors and twitches
§ Muscle tension
§ Headaches
§ Fatigue
§ Insomnia
· Emotional symptoms of anxiety
In addition to the primary symptoms of irrational and excessive fear and worry, other common emotional symptoms of anxiety include:
§ Feelings of apprehension or dread
§ Trouble concentrating
§ Feeling tense and jumpy
§ Anticipating the worst
§ Irritability
§ Restlessness
§ Watching for signs of danger
§ Feeling like your mind’s gone blank
· Emotional effects may include "feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness, watching (and waiting) for signs (and occurrences) of danger, and, feeling like your mind's gone blank" as well as "nightmares/bad dreams, obsessions about sensations, deja vu , a trapped in your mind feeling, and feeling like everything is scary."
· Behavioral effects may include withdrawal from situations where unpleasant effects of anxiety have been experienced in the past. It can also be affected in ways which include changes in sleeping patterns, nail biting and increased motor tension, such as foot tapping.
Medication for anxiety disorders
A variety of medications, including benzodiazepines and antidepressants, are used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. But medication is most effective when combined with behavioral therapy. When compared to those who use medication alone, anxiety sufferers treated with both therapy and medication benefit from a greater reduction in symptoms and a lower risk of relapse.
For certain types of anxiety disorders like phobias or social anxiety disorder, medication may only be needed from time to time, such as right before boarding an airplane or performing at a recital.
For other anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, medication may be necessary for a longer period of treatment.
Medication may also be used in the short-term to relieve severe anxiety symptoms so that other forms of therapy can be pursued.
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